Aegean messed up my ticket

Old Jun 7, 2022, 7:48 am
  #1  
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Aegean messed up my ticket

I'm currently dealing with Aegean to re-instate my ticket to it's original (and booked) form, with little to no help from Aegean despite them messing up my ticket in the first place.

Booked a return trip from Dusseldorf (DUS) to Paros (PAS) via Athens (ATH) for two, including an infant a couple of months back. Last week I've called A3 to inquire about purchasing an extra seat for the infant (17 months old). Been told that the flight has been sold out (EF still shows availability, but I didn't dig in deeper) and that maybe there's a possibility for the inbound flight, but we'd be called back as the agent didn't know how to price it correctly. Call back never occured and we put it aside.

Fast forward to yesterday - received an email stating the following:

"Dear passenger,

Following our previous communication, kindly contact us again at +302106261000, as additional clarifications regarding your case are needed.

Yours Sincerely,

The AEGEAN and Olympic Air Call Center"

Alrighty. Not sure what exactly is going on, but having checked our PNR I couldn't even look it up anymore (at least not with my name). Second pax last name + PNR worked to get into manage my booking and et voila, both myself and the infant have vanished from the booking completly. Just one pax on the PNR.
What has followed since then are approx. five calls with different agents and more than six hours spend on the phone (75% of that time waiting for someone).

Apparently someone did touch the ticket and instead of pricing an extra seat, removed the infant and myself from the ticket entirely. First agent didn't even see an issue until I told her, that the original booking was for two adults, one infant. Supervisor stepped in and confirmed that I currently do not hold any sort of booking at all and the original flight is full. I have been promised a call back by the end of yesterday. Guess what happened - yup, nothing.

Been on the phone for hours today trying to get myself back on that plane, but according to A3, the flight is sold out (EF confirms Y0). No one can really explain what is or was going on and how this happened in the first place. I'm not interested in a refund (which the computer says no to as it's not a refundable fare) - I just want to get back on that flight. Alternative routings are not available either (e.g. via FRA). There's also no availability on the flight the next day, unless I'd like to have a 13 hour layover in Athens.

We're still seven days out, so haven't lost all hope yet. Still baffled as this is pretty much the first time any of my tickets have been messed up so badly.
ckx2 is offline  
Old Jun 7, 2022, 11:46 pm
  #2  
 
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A similar thing happened to me last week - arrived at check in for the first leg of our return to be told the reservation had been cancelled (although the second leg still intact). No obvious reason this might have happened, although an agent had touched the ticket a few days previously to waitlist for a voucher upgrade. Good luck.
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Old Jun 11, 2022, 1:39 am
  #3  
 
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may i suggest u to change plan to go else where, or cancel full refund, do a staycation at current city
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Old Jun 11, 2022, 5:28 am
  #4  
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So let me get this straight. You booked a flight for 2 pax and one (<2 yr) lap infant. You requested a seat for the infant and was told that no seats are available. From that moment on you have been removed from the reservation and Aegean has confirmed that they no longer hold a reservation for you. This happened less than 14 days before departure.

This seems quite clear at first glance. Aegean will have to put you back on the flight OR rebook you onto something different where the total delay is <3hr. Failing to do that they owe you a re-route on another flight, a full refund, AND compensation according to 261/2004.

Personally I would not accept a refund. Chances of you being able to find another flight that is at the same price are very low so close to departure. If all of this happened within the 2-weeks window before the flight Aegean is responsible and they HAVE to get you on the flight, an alternative flight that will cause <3hr delay, or get you on another flight (even if more expensive!) plus the compensation.

I would make sure to verify the timelines (if within 2 weeks especially), read up on 261/2004 and call them back. Have your e-ticket number available (The one that was assigned to you as a passenger on the original flight) and have them look up the details through that number. It will give them the booking the way it initially was. Then make it clear to them that you have not requested to be removed from the flight and it is up to them to resolve.

Being realistic they may not be able to get you on that flight again, since that likely means that they would have to remove someone else. You could search for other flight options (even on other carriers) and suggest them re-booking you on that (for free, obviously). Another option to consider could be to request moving all of you onto that alternative flight so that you can fly together.
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Last edited by Xandrios; Jun 11, 2022 at 5:33 am
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Old Jun 12, 2022, 11:41 pm
  #5  
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I would have asked for free rebooking in A3 business, or on Lufthansa, whatever was available anywhere...
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Old Jun 22, 2022, 12:50 am
  #6  
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Quick update - currently on Paros island. We've been rebooked on LH as A3 messed up the entire ticket. Flying back on LH also. Spent almost five hours getting us on back on a flight to/from Greece
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ckx2 is offline  
Old Jun 22, 2022, 4:32 am
  #7  
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Good to hear it was fixed eventually. And if this all happened within the 14-days window before the flight you should be eligible for compensation. I'd recommend not touching that subject until after having returned, though.

Enjoy your time on Paros
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Old Jun 22, 2022, 11:28 am
  #8  
 
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Sidenote regarding infants in general:
I've been advised by customer service, that the amount of infant oxygen masks on each aircraft is limited. That means, if you're going to book an infant to fly with you, do so from the very beginning, as it is possible, that if there are enough infants already booked, you won't be allowed to fly with your infant at all! (or at least that what she told me)
Another issue I came across myself lately is this: I knew you can't book the exit rows when flying with an infant. So I booked the row behind the exit rows. I then had a phone agent add an infant to that booking and she (the same who advised me about infant masks) assured me that everything was fine. By pure luck I did a half dummy-booking a few weeks later and noticed, to my horror, that my seat appeared as available for anyone to reserve! I checked my reservation again, it showed the same seat I was supposed to be booked in just fine! Called again, new agent, she first guessed that it was an issue that had to do with the seat being a "B" (middle seat) and said something about baby masks only being available in window seats, but then she noticed that the system would allow a re-location to a middle seat in a different row, so she came to the conclusion, that it's not only the exit row seats that need to be kept "infant-free", but also the +1 and -1 rows to those exit rows.
Anyway, ended up way in the back now, so my ticket also got kind of messed up, but ...whatever . At least the reservation didn't vanish into thin air like the OP's did.
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Old Jun 22, 2022, 1:35 pm
  #9  
 
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Originally Posted by giorginho
Sidenote regarding infants in general:
I've been advised by customer service, that the amount of infant oxygen masks on each aircraft is limited. That means, if you're going to book an infant to fly with you, do so from the very beginning, as it is possible, that if there are enough infants already booked, you won't be allowed to fly with your infant at all! (or at least that what she told me)
Another issue I came across myself lately is this: I knew you can't book the exit rows when flying with an infant. So I booked the row behind the exit rows. I then had a phone agent add an infant to that booking and she (the same who advised me about infant masks) assured me that everything was fine. By pure luck I did a half dummy-booking a few weeks later and noticed, to my horror, that my seat appeared as available for anyone to reserve! I checked my reservation again, it showed the same seat I was supposed to be booked in just fine! Called again, new agent, she first guessed that it was an issue that had to do with the seat being a "B" (middle seat) and said something about baby masks only being available in window seats, but then she noticed that the system would allow a re-location to a middle seat in a different row, so she came to the conclusion, that it's not only the exit row seats that need to be kept "infant-free", but also the +1 and -1 rows to those exit rows.
Anyway, ended up way in the back now, so my ticket also got kind of messed up, but ...whatever . At least the reservation didn't vanish into thin air like the OP's did.
I had the same problem on a recent RHO-ATH flight. We were booked in row 10 (row in fromt of the exit row) but at OLCI, my 4 year old was moved to row 5 on her own. Nobody from A3 could fix it but I then selected us seats in row 19 via MMB and OLCI worked fine then. It seems the rows in front of and behind the exit rows are blocked for all children but nobody at A3 knows about it. ;-)
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Old Jun 27, 2022, 6:35 am
  #10  
 
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Totally unrelated but possibly interesting to someone: I had an issue many years ago when my daughter was four years old. We were on an Olympic 727 and she had to move because children weren't allowed in aisle seats. It seemed weird but I was told it was because of the position of drop-down masks on the 727, they might not be long enough to reach a small-person in C or D. The flight was half empty and we hadn't taken our allocated seats so my fault, but...what a great flight it was - only my second (and last) flight on a 727. I believe the allocated 737-200 had gone tech. and they had just this one 727 left in the fleet used mainly for this sort of thing. This was December 1999.
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Old Jun 27, 2022, 2:05 pm
  #11  
 
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I actually learned some more things about the masks and kids/infants situation from the cabin crew. So the rows have 3+3 seats, as we all know. There are sets of 4 oxygen masks per side (per 3 seats) that drop in case the pressure drops. So this is another potential issue if you need to take 2 infants with you: As long as the 3rd seat of the half row is already occupied by someone else, you can't book 2 adults and 2 infants in the remaining 2 seats, because there simply aren't enough masks for everyone! Now from what I understood, if you find and empty set of 3 seats, say A-C seats, and book 2 adults and 2 infants there, then the 3rd seat won't be bookable for anyone else for the same reason.
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Old Jun 28, 2022, 6:00 am
  #12  
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
 
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Originally Posted by giorginho
Now from what I understood, if you find and empty set of 3 seats, say A-C seats, and book 2 adults and 2 infants there, then the 3rd seat won't be bookable for anyone else for the same reason.
This is then a great hack/trick for parents with two kids. Two adults and two lap infants will get you three seats semi-guaranteed
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